The artless dodger

Paul Kelly: It is the politics of the absurd: when Peter Costello wanted the leadership, he found the Liberal Party denied him. But when the party was keen to anoint him, Costello chose his own form of denial.

The Liberal Party declined Costello and now Costello has declined the Liberal Party. This saga is a bizarre end to the leadership ambitions of the man widely hailed from the time of his 1990 entry into national politics as a certain future Liberal prime minister.